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Since these are the three most important measurements when placing or evaluating APs, it would be nice and very useful to have them all in one place. I looked all through my tools and utilities and the only one I found that had a column for SNR was Network stumbler which has a lot of problems working correctly with network cards. Since Chanalyzer uses both spectrum info and wireless card info it would be a great tool to have an autocalculated SNR column (since most wireless cards can't really accurately see noise floor). And this would save the trouble of manually calculating SNR, and it could be put into a report real easily if it was one of the columns.

Further quoting from the book:
The SNR is simply the difference in decibels between the received signal and the background noise. Many vendors recommend a minimum SNR of 18dB for data networks and a minimum of 25dB for voice networks. I know this is simple to calculate manually, but it would be very convienient to have it automatically shown (& it would be another place to notice interference).

And finally,
SNR Measuring Requirements Keep in mind that measuring the SNR requires a device that can measure the raw ambient RF energy of the noise floor. It should be understood that an 802.11 wireless network interface card (NIC) is not a spectrum analyzer, and though it can transmit and receive data at a prodigious rate, it cannot see raw ambient RF signals. Wi-Fi radio can decode the modulated data bits sent from another Wi-Fi radio but cannot truthfully measure the noise floor. A Wi-Fi NIC can be used to measure the received signal; however, the best device that can truly measure non-encoded RF energy is a spectrum analyzer and therefore is your best tool to measure SNR.

Thanks much

Robin Hood,

P.s. thanks for your reply to my T1 question under general discussion.